From Radical Writer to Inventor
In the mid-19th century, Narcís Monturiol was known not for engineering, but for his radical writings on feminism, pacifism, and Communism. Persecuted by authorities, he fled to Cadaqués, a fishing village on Spain’s Mediterranean coast.
There, he witnessed the dangers faced by coral divers, including a fatal drowning in 1857, which inspired him to protect them by venturing beneath the sea himself.
The Birth of Ictíneo
Monturiol returned to his hometown of Figueres and began designing a submarine. Drawing on his father’s craft as a cooper and aided by builders, he created the Ictíneo in 1859. Shaped like a barrel, 23 feet long, and double-hulled with olive wood and copper, it was powered by pedals.
Monturiol and his team performed more than 50 dives in Barcelona’s harbor, reaching depths of 60 feet and remaining submerged for hours, far surpassing any submarine of the era.
The Powered Breakthrough
After a collision destroyed his first vessel in 1862, Monturiol built the larger Ictíneo II. By 1867, he had equipped it with a groundbreaking anaerobic steam engine powered by chemical reactions that generated both heat and oxygen.
This innovation made it the world’s first combustion-powered submarine, a feat not replicated until the 20th century. Monturiol even offered his designs to the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, but his letter arrived too late.
The Dream Ends in Scrap
Despite technical success, Monturiol struggled to secure funding. He added a cannon to attract military buyers, but governments showed little interest.
In 1868, he sold the Ictíneo II for scrap; its windows ended up in Spanish bathrooms and its pioneering engine was repurposed for grinding wheat. Monturiol died in 1885 in poverty, but his daring invention marked a turning point in submarine history.
In 1857, after witnessing a coral diver’s death, Catalan writer Narcís Monturiol dreamed of a safer way to explore the sea.
From Cadaqués he began designing Ictíneo, proving that even a writer could attempt to build a true submarine.
And he managed to build something… pic.twitter.com/k5SJyPV1JN
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) September 19, 2025